Dear Family!
I am so glad I got to talk to you all last week. It was great to hear all your voices and talk in person for a while. It always seems so short and goes by way too fast. Life as a missionary is just so so busy. We are here in the Lords time and every minute counts. Time just flies by sometimes when you’re working so hard. Thanks for the e mails as always....I love reading them. I loved reading about the springtime over there mom. It made me remember some really good memories of Utah haha. I’m sure it’s beautiful and I’m glad it’s starting to warm up. Over here it’s nice and fall is definitely in the air. Yeah there is a lot of beautiful colors here....not as much as Utah but there are a lot of nice ones. It’s starting to get more and more cold but up here in Whangarei it’s actually really nice! :) I’m lucky....but now I’m going to have a whole year a winter!!
Our week was really great this week. On Monday I interviewed 3 kids for baptism for the ZL's. They all passed and I’m sure they had a good baptism. Tuesday like always we had district meeting and it was very spiritual and we all learned a lot. We had a District Blitz....that’s where we all go into one of the missionaries areas. We all went in the sisters area and worked for an hour. We had a trade off with the D-Ville elders on Tuesday too. Thursday we went on a trade off with the zone leaders. I got to go into their area. In the morning we just went crazy and talked to so many people. Then for lunch we got some really good burgers at a restaurant and we ate them by this really nice lake. It was beautiful...it was at a small town north of Whangarei called Hikerangi. We then drove about an hour up the east cost of New Zealand. So I went even further north. It was so cool to see the northland of New Zealand. Wow breath taking. I’ve been really lucky because I’ve seen a lot of New Zealand....I’ve been really down south...almost to the Wellington mission and then I’ve been clear up north. And Niue!! It’s really unusual that I have served my whole mission out in the country...I don’t think I have ever met a missionary that hasn’t served in the City (Auckland). I got to see the Ocean of the northland new Zealand coast.. It was nice. We had some really good lessons and I got to meet a lot of people. We had a really good dinner with a member family...Aww I’m going to miss some of the food here....like the island family feeds haha.
Well Saturday was just a great day!! We had Caleb’s baptism and it was incredible. We went up really early to fill up the font and get the chapel ready for the baptism. Then all his family started to come. He had a lot of family come to his baptism and almost all of them were non members. It was great to see all his extended family come to support him. The program was great and when he got baptized my heart was full of joy! All the family members felt the spirit. Caleb went up and bore his testimony and it was very powerful. Experiences like this are what make it all worth it. He bore such a strong testimony and said he wanted to serve a mission. Wow I’m sure he will. And his family is starting to be interested. I hope we can bring his dad back, baptize his mom and sisters....that will be a miracle!!! Yesterday at church I was the one that was able to confirm him a member. Wow what a blessing. It was just so amazing. Then me and my companion spoke in church!! We talked about missionary work and trying to get the members more involved. We handed out referral cards and Books of Mormon for them to give to their non member friends. It was a great Sunday. Oh yeah Sunday morning before church we went and gave one of our investigators a blessing up at the hospital. She was very badly beaten up by her ex boy friend and was in a very bad condition. It was so sad to see her....she looked like she was in a lot of pain. We were able to talk and testify about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. How it can heal us physically and spiritually and we gave her a priesthood blessing and said a powerful prayer with her. I felt the spirit so strong as she said I know that God loves me and tears rolled down her face. My prayers are for her right now and I would love it if you all can pray for her too. Her name is Bridget.
Well I was surprised to hear your doing a triathlon!! MOM that is way awesome. Good luck and I hope you will do really good!! I’m glad Jami and Kaylee are so busy and doing a lot of really great things. Dad, have a great time at your customer meeting and be safe. And I know can you believe it I’m almost 21 years old!! It’s so weird to think about! Thank you so much for sending a package...I can’t wait to get it!! And yep, Zone Conference is Tomorrow!!! I’m very excited!!! I will be praying for you mom so you can get a job!!! I’m sorry but I have to go now. I love you all so much. I tried to send some pictures but I wasn’t able too...I would love it if you could send some pictures next week...I love to see them!!
Have a great day!! I love you
Elder Kitchen!!